Pelican 1920B Gen 2 LED Flashlight - 1000 Lumens, Waterproof, Rechargeable Tactical Flashlight for Camping, Hiking, Emergency & Outdoor Adventures

------------------------ Update Review (3-14-2016) ------------------------------------ Well, something happened with the light that I thought was worthy of an update. I lost it! I was very upset, it was a good light and didn't want to have to spend money on another. At this point I had gotten used to carrying a light, it does come in handy, so I knew I needed another one. I went on amazon to start looking around again, to see if my tastes had changed. I ended up torn between Nextorch's K3, Nitecore's MT06, and this light, the Pelican 1920. As I was trying to decide, I ended up stumbling upon the light I thought I lost! It had slipped out of my pocket. This is something I had noticed the light doing quite a bit. The smooth metallic barrel of the light doesnt grip onto fabric much, and when sitting and standing a few times, your thigh can start to push the light out of your pocket. I had noticed it almost falling out a few times, this is the first time is just fell out. So, I found the light, I figured I should try to modify it again to keep it in my pocket. My original thought was to wrap it in grip tape, but I figured that would tear my pockets up. What I ended up deciding on was a product I had never used before called Self Fusing Silicone Rubber Tape. Its not sticky at all, it has no adhesive on it, feels l like plain rubber, but when it touches itself, it grabs on like crazy and wont come appart. I wrapped the center part in it, and now it will not budge in my pocket (see image). It is a little tougher getting in, but not as tough as it was before I bent the clip in the previous review. Overall I have had to modify this light in 2 ways, both regarding the clip, which might sound like its not a 5 star light, but to me it really is. Especially when I read reviews on the other two lights I was considering that say their clips break off...------------------------- Original Review (1-16-2016) ------------------------------------ First off, the light source. You can probably find lights that claim more brightness, and maybe they actually are brighter, but you do need to consider battery life. More lumens requires more power, and you'll probably find your batteries draining pretty quick. Maybe you dont mind swapping batteries frequently, or maybe you'll never use your light, and if so, go for lumens. I found the LED in this light to be PLENTY bright for its application. It will illuminate out to maybe 75 feet pretty clearly. That is due in part to its reflector which I also think is the best way to go for a light like this. The reflector is smooth and deep, giving you a somewhat concentrated light. This gives it more distance in its throw. The spread isnt great, but you're getting a small light. If it spreads great, youre going to have a dim spread. Most penlights are only useful indoors. Because of the decent LED source and deep reflector, this can be adequate outdoors for point lighting.While Im near the topic of LED choices, you should also think about heat. A brighter diode is going to generate more heat, and let me tell you, this one generates some heat itself. When on dim mode, you can just leave it and it will be fine, but on bright mode, after about a minute it is noticeably warm, 3 minutes and it starts dimming because its pretty hot. Again, think of your application. You're probably not going to have this light on for more than 10 seconds. If you need it for 5 minutes, put it on dim mode. Dim mode (while 12 lumens sounds low) looks to the eye as about half as bright. (factor of 10 means about a factor of 2 to your eye).Since I've mentioned the modes, this light has 2 modes, bright and dim. PERFECT. I hate lights that have a thousand modes. The way the light lets you change modes is based around a timer. After your first press of the button (you dont have to click, it can operate with just pressing it down slightly) you have about 1 second to release and press it again and it will go into dim mode. You can then complete the press into a click to lock it there. If you turn the light off, it will reset after a second and be ready to go back to bright mode whenever you turn it on. Some people like their lights to start in dim mode. I think these people are silly. Their main argument is usually along the lines of wanting to maintain night adjusted vision. Well, just dont point the light directly at what you want to see. The amount of time it takes to switch to dim is the same amount of time it takes to blink your eyes, so do that. Fact of the matter is 80% of the time you turn your light on, you want to start in bright mode.I think thats all there is to talk about concerning the light source itself. Onto the rest of the light. The barrel is a littllleee too big (inner diameter) for my liking. You can shake the light and hear rattling from the batteries. I fixed this by wrapping 4 rechargeable AAA batteries I have dedicated for this light in electrical tape, about 1.5 times around and the slide in super smooth, and wont rattle with shaking. Another thing is, without the clip, the light will roll on sloped surfaces. The clip is cut in such a way that it cannot spin around while the end cap is screwed on, but if you take the clip off, it will roll. The clip is my main complaint with this knife, but its one you can fix. Its a good clip, thick, secured on well, but I think the shape is dumb. The way the tip is bent up, the designers must have been fitting this thing for a shirt pocket. It wont slide onto jeans or anything thicker without you bending the clip out with you finger. I fixed this (see image) by messing with the clip for about 10 minutes with a pair of pliers and some lever points. Now it can slide on anything and stay there.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I think thats all there is to say about this light. In short, I love this light and if mine breaks I will be getting another. Feel free to comment here if you want an update, I'll try to be quick.I've only had this light for a short time but I love it so far. Due to my job, I wear a coat, slacks and tie almost every day. This has made it tough to carry a good (tactical) flashlight. I was carrying a cheapo single AA flashlight from a big chain store that worked well enough, but just wasn't bright enough for me. I finally broke down and started doing a little research planning to ask for a nice "penlight" for Christmas. This was the light I chose. Unfortunately, no one got it for me, so I bought it for myself after Christmas (2012). I have carried it almost daily to work. I also tend to carry it in the evenings and on the weekends as a backup to my tactical flashlight. It is lightweight enough that I don't notice it in my suit/sport coat pocket or shirt pocket.With regards to use, I don't use it A LOT, but I do use it regularly. I live on four acres in the desert and there are many times when I am outside at night. This light is more than bright enough for me to use on the property and get good illumination (and range) whenever and wherever I need it. I can't speak to durability as I have not dropped it nor used it to beat off any wild beasts. All I can say is it is plenty bright!I highly recommend this light and would purchase again.UPDATE: 2 SEPT 2014After owning this flashlight for about 18 months, its durability has been slightly lacking. I've used it DAILY as an Every Day Carry (EDC) item, at work, in town, and on the homestead. It's been dropped and banged around A LOT. While the body, tailcap switch, clip, bulb and battery life have been outstanding, the battery spring under the tailcap is inherently weak. Within a few months of carrying it, prior to any hard use, the spring started to compress causing the batteries to "rattle" inside. This was not only audible, but it caused the light to cut out. I found I could take the tailcap off and put a light stretch on the spring to bring back the tension on the batteries. This worked well until last week when I apparently stretched it too much. Now the light STAYS ON no matter how hard I push the tailcap. I've contacted Pelican and they will apparently replace/repair the light for free if I pay shipping both ways. Haven't decided what I'll do yet...UPDATE: 24 OCT 2014I contacted Pelican with my issue and they gave me a reference number and asked for $5 to pay for shipping back to me. I also paid for shipping to them... I was a little miffed, but in all of the reviews I read on penlights, the best option still seemed to spend about $10 to get this light repaired (a new tailcap). I have thoroughly loved this light except for the tailcap issue.When my package arrived back to me last week, I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find a brand new-in-box, 2-power Pelican 1920. It has two lumens (can't recall specs off-hand) that are activated by the press/release of the tailcap. First press is high, second press is off, third press is low. This must be done quickly, however. If you wait more than about 2 seconds to press the tailcap to change the lumens, it turns off. Or, if you press on for bright, then off and wait for more than about 2 seconds, it goes back to bright. You need to be quick about the cap presses. I'm not a fan of having to "strobe" the light to get to the lower lumens, but the fact it will turn off without cycling if you wait a few seconds is nice. If you use just light pressure for the "momentary on", it defaults to bright as well. Thus it takes a fairly quick 3-presses of the tailcap to get to low.In the end, this still seems (to me) to be the best penlight on the market for under $25. Even under $30. I would definitely buy again if I lose this light.I've been carrying it as a HD mechanic all day, every day for over a month now. Overall it's a nice rugged light if you're using it for short bursts. If you need it on for extended periods the weaknesses show.The body is very high quality and has survived a few solid drops (6-10ft) and being totally bathed in gear oil, used engine oil, chassis grease etc. The body has dented and scratched but everything still works fine. There is no battery rattle and the light doesn't flicker even after rough treatment. The light has been dropped 6+ feet directly onto the switch more than once resulting in the light being switched on/off but the function is still fine. Tailcap rubber has gotten a bit soft but is holding up. The glass is holding up well with no signs of wear. Sadly the o-ring on the tailcap failed from being pinched after a few battery changes. I'll have to dig around and find one at work that isn't quite so soft and possibly a little more chemical resistant.The high setting is indeed bright (verging on too bright for use within 5 feet), but the flashlight gets very hot after 10-15 minutes or so and eventually de-rates to the dim setting. It also absolutely DEVOURS batteries on high. Max life on high is around 1.5 hours using Engergizer Industrial AAAs. I try and use the dim setting whenever possible, but it's simply TOO dim to really cut it in many situations. I really wish that there was either an intermediate setting or the dim setting was bumped up a little to bridge the gap between "blazing sun" and "candle light".I give the light 4 stars for being basically bulletproof even though it is let down by battery life and output settings. Overall the mechanical construction is superior to the Streamlight Stylus Pro (The Streamlight eventually failed due to a drop and wore faster, but to be fair the Stylus is lighter, less bulky and cheaper), but for my use I preferred the battery life and light output of the Streamlight (slightly less lumens but SIGNIFICANTLY longer life).Awesome light/product. I now own 3 of these. They’re really bright from far distances. The batteries don’t last long if you always use it on the high setting. Most times in dark spots though the low setting is perfect.Oh yeah!,nice having two levels of light cause on high your done in two hours still awesome fits perfectly in the vest pocketWorks great pelican is the bestAwesome! Very bright, long range, small.. great for walking outside at night